Below Average

Poor

Saw it at the press screening, and all I can say is that I'm oh, so glad that I didn't have to pay for it.

Suffice it to say that I was massively underwhelmed. Plot contrivances, shaky camera, even in the CGI stuff, cringe inducing dialogue, a "Look at MEEE!" glory shot of the ship every five minutes, all capped off with a closing credit sequence ripped off from the Lost in Space movie....well, let's just say that just about everything I said before I saw it, stands.

Some of the more minor annoyances:

Pink skinned Vulcans Y'know, JJ, there was a reason they painted Nimoy yellow way back when, and it's because of that green Vulcan blood.

The Kelvin 800 people made it off, after getting the crap kicked out it, which killed how many? And this is supposed to be a pre-TOS ship? Sorry, but that bucket reeked more of TNG, both in capacity and in the crew complement, which apparently included families, another TNG contrivance that didn't make it past "Generations" (the Enterprise-E doesn't have families on board). The interiors also indicated a much more
massive ship, on the order of a Galaxy class starship.

The technology Compared to TOS, most it, quite frankly, sucked. The front window/viewscreen was blurry and distorted, the transporter didn't work half as well as even the NX-01's, and the phasers, both shipboard and handheld, all behaved more like Star Wars blasters and turbolasers than their TOS predecessors. And need I mention Sulu's automatically unfolding katana, which helped him in his dashing impression of Luke Skywalker in the barge scene in "Return of the Jedi"? Or how the ships going to warp bore an uncanny resemblence to SW ships going to hyperspace? Should George Lucas be flattered or should he be calling his lawyers?

Delta Vega As an astute poster over on trekmovie.com pointed out, the name of the neighboring planet that Spock was stranded on really didn't have any bearing on the story, but by invoking the name of Delta Vega, the writers shined a big bright spotlight on this bit, making it quite clear that, deep down, they don't know what they're doing. A big part of "honoring canon" is getting the details right; otherwise, it's just meaningless name dropping and pandering.

Chekov Excuse me, but exactly when did Chekov turn into Wesley Crusher? Also, at age seventeen, he should be starting his first year at the Academy, not already be a commissioned officer. But then, these clowns clearly don't know a thing about military protocol, since they also take a guy who was a cadet facing some serious charges a couple of days earlier and give him command of their biggest and most advanced ship. At the very least, it's clear they wouldn't know the chain of command if someone came up and beat 'em about the head and shoulders with it.

And my complaint about Spock still remains: He knows how to achieve a time warp, and he knows precisely what happened when, why it happened, and how to circumvent those events. So why doesn't he get a ship, do a few time jumps, and fix everything that got screwed up? He could not only restore the timeline, but finally cement a lasting peace between the Romulan Empire and the Federation.

So why doesn't he do this?

Because Spock has to have a sudden attack of the stupids in order for JJ to get his own Star Trek universe to run amok in.

Urban was good as McCoy, Pine was okay as Kirk, can't really grade Greenwood as Pike since we never got that much from Jeffery Hunter to form a basis of comparison, but taken on it's own, he gives a good performance, Yelchin was downright embarrassing as Chekov, Quinto just seemed to be PMSing all the time, and the rest of the cast was just sort of there.

The ship still looks stupid, and the decision to build it on the surface is the singlemost idiotic move in the entire history of the franchise. It didn't help that the "Riverside shipyards" were clearly a present day industrial facility, either an oil refinery or electrical substation. Engineering looking alternately like a water treatment plant and, like it is in real life, a brewery, only adds insult to injury.

The choice of "Crap on a stick" isn't available, so I voted "Poor".

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I agree...........What more can be said . Give some rich guy , with a big ego , tons of money and artistic license ,and this is what you get .

Rob

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Excuse me but i have to say this,these arguments are downright pathetic,come on man ,just look at what your posting,bitching why the ship is built on earth ,why the Kelvin looks bigger than ships in the TNG ,its nonsense to me. As far as i can see you haven't posted on convincing argument that supports your dislike for the flick .
Maybe its because i'm not really a Star Trek fan,TNG ,DS9 and Voyager was just to boring for me ,i've tried to watch them .
What exactly do you understand from the concept of "fun summer movie" ?

Saw it at the press screening, and all I can say is that I'm oh, so glad that I didn't have to pay for it.

Suffice it to say that I was massively underwhelmed. Plot contrivances, shaky camera, even in the CGI stuff, cringe inducing dialogue, a "Look at MEEE!" glory shot of the ship every five minutes, all capped off with a closing credit sequence ripped off from the Lost in Space movie....well, let's just say that just about everything I said before I saw it, stands.

Some of the more minor annoyances:

Pink skinned Vulcans Y'know, JJ, there was a reason they painted Nimoy yellow way back when, and it's because of that green Vulcan blood.

The Kelvin 800 people made it off, after getting the crap kicked out it, which killed how many? And this is supposed to be a pre-TOS ship? Sorry, but that bucket reeked more of TNG, both in capacity and in the crew complement, which apparently included families, another TNG contrivance that didn't make it past "Generations" (the Enterprise-E doesn't have families on board). The interiors also indicated a much more
massive ship, on the order of a Galaxy class starship.

The technology Compared to TOS, most it, quite frankly, sucked. The front window/viewscreen was blurry and distorted, the transporter didn't work half as well as even the NX-01's, and the phasers, both shipboard and handheld, all behaved more like Star Wars blasters and turbolasers than their TOS predecessors. And need I mention Sulu's automatically unfolding katana, which helped him in his dashing impression of Luke Skywalker in the barge scene in "Return of the Jedi"? Or how the ships going to warp bore an uncanny resemblence to SW ships going to hyperspace? Should George Lucas be flattered or should he be calling his lawyers?

Delta Vega As an astute poster over on trekmovie.com pointed out, the name of the neighboring planet that Spock was stranded on really didn't have any bearing on the story, but by invoking the name of Delta Vega, the writers shined a big bright spotlight on this bit, making it quite clear that, deep down, they don't know what they're doing. A big part of "honoring canon" is getting the details right; otherwise, it's just meaningless name dropping and pandering.

Chekov Excuse me, but exactly when did Chekov turn into Wesley Crusher? Also, at age seventeen, he should be starting his first year at the Academy, not already be a commissioned officer. But then, these clowns clearly don't know a thing about military protocol, since they also take a guy who was a cadet facing some serious charges a couple of days earlier and give him command of their biggest and most advanced ship. At the very least, it's clear they wouldn't know the chain of command if someone came up and beat 'em about the head and shoulders with it.

And my complaint about Spock still remains: He knows how to achieve a time warp, and he knows precisely what happened when, why it happened, and how to circumvent those events. So why doesn't he get a ship, do a few time jumps, and fix everything that got screwed up? He could not only restore the timeline, but finally cement a lasting peace between the Romulan Empire and the Federation.

So why doesn't he do this?

Because Spock has to have a sudden attack of the stupids in order for JJ to get his own Star Trek universe to run amok in.

Urban was good as McCoy, Pine was okay as Kirk, can't really grade Greenwood as Pike since we never got that much from Jeffery Hunter to form a basis of comparison, but taken on it's own, he gives a good performance, Yelchin was downright embarrassing as Chekov, Quinto just seemed to be PMSing all the time, and the rest of the cast was just sort of there.

The ship still looks stupid, and the decision to build it on the surface is the singlemost idiotic move in the entire history of the franchise. It didn't help that the "Riverside shipyards" were clearly a present day industrial facility, either an oil refinery or electrical substation. Engineering looking alternately like a water treatment plant and, like it is in real life, a brewery, only adds insult to injury.

The choice of "Crap on a stick" isn't available, so I voted "Poor".

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I agree...........What more can be said . Give some rich guy , with a big ego , tons of money and artistic license ,and this is what you get .

Rob

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Excuse me but i have to say this,these arguments are downright pathetic,come on man ,just look at what your posting,bitching why the ship is built on earth ,why the Kelvin looks bigger than ships in the TNG ,its nonsense to me. As far as i can see you haven't posted on convincing argument that supports your dislike for the flick .
Maybe its because i'm not really a Star Trek fan,TNG ,DS9 and Voyager was just to boring for me ,i've tried to watch them .
What exactly do you understand from the concept of "fun summer movie" ?

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Are you saying that I need to post a convincing argument to you , on my thoughts about the film , to dislike the film?

No i'm not saying that,i'm just saying that his arguments are stupid and don't make sense to me . And you don't have to convince anyone about anything,its just that you guys seem a little ....weird you know ?

The Kelvin 800 people made it off, after getting the crap kicked out it, which killed how many? And this is supposed to be a pre-TOS ship? Sorry, but that bucket reeked more of TNG, both in capacity and in the crew complement, which apparently included families, another TNG contrivance that didn't make it past "Generations" (the Enterprise-E doesn't have families on board). The interiors also indicated a much more
massive ship, on the order of a Galaxy class starship.

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Perhaps the Kelvin had colonists for that planet Kirk grew up on on board... But, nah... far too rooted in the 'canon' as an explanation for your arguement to work, isn't it?

And need I mention Sulu's automatically unfolding katana, which helped him in his dashing impression of Luke Skywalker in the barge scene in "Return of the Jedi"? Or how the ships going to warp bore an uncanny resemblence to SW ships going to hyperspace? Should George Lucas be flattered or should he be calling his lawyers?

Delta Vega As an astute poster over on trekmovie.com pointed out, the name of the neighboring planet that Spock was stranded on really didn't have any bearing on the story, but by invoking the name of Delta Vega, the writers shined a big bright spotlight on this bit, making it quite clear that, deep down, they don't know what they're doing. A big part of "honoring canon" is getting the details right; otherwise, it's just meaningless name dropping and pandering.

Chekov Excuse me, but exactly when did Chekov turn into Wesley Crusher? Also, at age seventeen, he should be starting his first year at the Academy, not already be a commissioned officer. But then, these clowns clearly don't know a thing about military protocol, since they also take a guy who was a cadet facing some serious charges a couple of days earlier and give him command of their biggest and most advanced ship. At the very least, it's clear they wouldn't know the chain of command if someone came up and beat 'em about the head and shoulders with it.

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Did you notice that Starfleet Command ordered all cadets to crew the orbiting ships?
Obviously Kirk was promoted to captain the Enterprise because of Admiral Pike's recommendations and the simple fact that he and his decisions saved the Earth.

And my complaint about Spock still remains: He knows how to achieve a time warp, and he knows precisely what happened when, why it happened, and how to circumvent those events. So why doesn't he get a ship, do a few time jumps, and fix everything that got screwed up? He could not only restore the timeline, but finally cement a lasting peace between the Romulan Empire and the Federation.

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Spock was dragged into the black hole and was immediately captured by Nero after he emereged from it in the past.
And what would you have him do?

Travel back with another ship to destroy the Narada? Well, she took care of that Klingon armada and the small Starfleet battle group real quick.

Tell everyone about Nero to save the timeline? But damn... he would contaminate the timeline in so doing.

There is nothing Spock could have done to prevent the destruction of the Kelvin that wouldn't have changed the timeline.

Urban was good as McCoy, Pine was okay as Kirk, can't really grade Greenwood as Pike since we never got that much from Jeffery Hunter to form a basis of comparison, but taken on it's own, he gives a good performance, Yelchin was downright embarrassing as Chekov, Quinto just seemed to be PMSing all the time, and the rest of the cast was just sort of there.

It didn't help that the "Riverside shipyards" were clearly a present day industrial facility, either an oil refinery or electrical substation. Engineering looking alternately like a water treatment plant and, like it is in real life, a brewery, only adds insult to injury.

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It never really made any sense that in Trek all the machinery on the engineering decks was hidden behind walls and bulkheads.

No i'm not saying that,i'm just saying that his arguments are stupid and don't make sense to me . And you don't have to convince anyone about anything,its just that you guys seem a little ....weird you know ?

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With all due respect Mr.Whatever , passing judgment on people that you don't know outside of an internet chat board seems a bit ludicrous.

It seems that people whom you do not agree with ,are weird .Have I got that correct ? Well I have to go to work now .So long .What might you be doing today?

Just a quick expulsion of near gibberish of some of my thoughts while my mind is digesting and recovering from the shock of the anal mind-rape of seeing this amazing film -

Great film. Full on blockbuster with great characters and intense action. Incredible effects.

The Kobayashi maru sequence was hilarious. Loved the way the ships go to warp. Pine, Quinto, Urban, Cho and Pegg were all excellent. The ship was amazing. The sense of real danger was well realised, and the space battles and phaser fights onboard the Narada were great.

I liked the way Admiral Pike's uniform echoed Admiral Kirk's from TMP. I hope he is around for the next one.

Chekov's accent was a little overdone. I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on them destroying Vulcan or killing off Amanda. And it was a shame it was all over so quickly.

Everything is set up well for the sequel. And there will be a sequel if the reaction from the sold out audience in attendence at the IMAX at Melbourne Museum are any indication. I arrived an hour early and there was already a que of 60 people or so. This quickly grew to around 300 or so, whatever the capacity of the cinema was. Oh and the session after mine was also sold out, and I beleive the later ones were too. The audience loved this film and were laughing out loud and gnashing their teeth and sighing when old Spock showed up and gave it a solid minute or so of applause at the end.

TOS will always have a special place in my heart, and that is in no danger of being outdone, but I do believe this is probably the best Star Trek film ever. That is all.

Could we please agree that people are allowed to both like and dislike the movie? There's no reason to disqualify or judge each other's opinions here.

(I am beginning to think that what I most liked about the film, by the way, was the idea of it: to see the original crew again, and to have a new Trek film on the big screen. After seeing it twice.. I just wish it had been better.)

Got back from seeing the movie about an hour ago. Thought the movie was great for what it was: a cool action movie in space with familiar characters that we love. It wasn't particularly deep though, so I don't think I'm going to end up rewatching this thing a hundred times. But that's OK. There are a lot of interesting directions they could go for sequels, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Just got back from a session in Melbourne. Cinema was only half full but it was an early session (when I left I noticed that the later sessions were selling out).

I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I thought it was a shade under being excellent (very very good would appropriate but that isn't a grading option).

The opening sequence was great and really got me on the edge of my seat. Quite emotional too.

I'm glad not too much time was spent on the young versions of Kirk and Spock as I was keen to get to the main actors' roles.

Overall the plot was good although it did sag after the destruction of Vulcan and became too expositional. It picked up again towards the end.

For the most part the characterisations and the acting was great. I would have liked to have seen more of McCoy and Scotty and less of Chekhov. I am still undecided about the Spock/Uhuru romance

I think Pine got the confidence and swagger of Kirk down pat. Quinto's interpretation of Spock was pretty good too. Urban made McCoy very likeable. I love seeing Simon Pegg in anything but would have preferred him to be a little less comic relief and a little more miracle worker. Yelchin's Chekhov was too campy. Saldana lived up to Nichelle Nichols. John Cho was good but nothing great. I would liked to have seen more of Eric Bana. Greenwood was fantastic as Pike. Nimoy was ok - seeing him onscreen again was a joy but I think his performance would have been better if "Old Spock" didn't have to spend as much time as he did explaining the plot.

The lens flares didn't bother me, for the record

I am sure I have more to say but I am typing this on my iPhone and it is rather time consuming. Suffice to say, I recognize that there are negative aspects to the film, but I still had a great time watching it, I will go see it again, and that it has successfully "reinvigorated the franchise" (actually I saw it with 2 non-trek fans who both really enjoyed it - one of whom now now wants to see the previous films and series).

And I do hope they make a sequel so we can see a stand alone adventure in this new/reboot/alternative universe and get to spend time with these classic characters!

Suffice it to say that I was massively underwhelmed. Plot contrivances,

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Which ones?

Yeah, so?

Yeah, so unlike TMP or the other films

Or from Superman...

Yeah, lets hear them.

Or was it his alcoholism... we'll never know.

Perhaps the Kelvin had colonists for that planet Kirk grew up on on board... But, nah... far too rooted in the 'canon' as an explanation for your arguement to work, isn't it?

Yes, when they recived transmissions from the Narada. You remember? In the times before and during the TOS-time they had difficulties communicating with the Romulans.

Because the high-energy beam from the Narada disrupted those signals.

And they sounded like the hand-held weapons from Galaxy Quest (they really did).
So what?
They looked cool and did their job.

You have quite the obsession with Star Wars, haven't you?

Okay. Now it's bad they reference the 'canon'?

Did you notice that Starfleet Command ordered all cadets to crew the orbiting ships?
Obviously Kirk was promoted to captain the Enterprise because of Admiral Pike's recommendations and the simple fact that he and his decisions saved the Earth.

Spock was dragged into the black hole and was immediately captured by Nero after he emereged from it in the past.
And what would you have him do?

Travel back with another ship to destroy the Narada? Well, she took care of that Klingon armada and the small Starfleet battle group real quick.

Tell everyone about Nero to save the timeline? But damn... he would contaminate the timeline in so doing.

There is nothing Spock could have done to prevent the destruction of the Kelvin that wouldn't have changed the timeline.

Because it wouldn't work.

No.

Your opinion.

Yeah... no...
Remember how they remote-controlled a brain-amputated Spock in that one episode?

It didn't help that the "Riverside shipyards" were clearly a present day industrial facility, either an oil refinery or electrical substation. Engineering looking alternately like a water treatment plant and, like it is in real life, a brewery, only adds insult to injury.

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It never really made any sense that in Trek all the machinery on the engineering decks was hidden behind walls and bulkheads.

Honestly, I completely agree with ST One's arguement here. They were never going to make a perfect film that all Trek fans would love instantly, some of the quotes from April's original post, god you're whiney. Bitching about the most pointless things in the world. "Oh no the Vulcans have pink skin!!!" give me a break.

I saw the movie earlier today in Australia (my full review is here). I've been a Trek fan since about 1970, so that gives you an idea of how much of a fan I am and my approximate age.

The movie was a full-blown action film. I didn't particularly like the way the action scenes were filmed myself - too dark and muddled for my taste - but the character interaction was beautiful to watch. I felt like I was watching a true early history of Kirk, Spock, and the other crewmembers. Their core personalities were intact, which is what is important to me. Orci's Trekker status must have helped with this - he obviously knows his stuff.

Overall, I felt it had enough emotional character-based scene moments for the long-time Trek fans who are not obsessed with the details of ships and timelines (not that there's anything wrong with that), while appealing to younger viewers with its youthful cast and moments of pure thought-free action.

So, for me, I think it has rejuvenated the franchise and will assure that a younger audience will embrace Trek. Personally, I think that's a good thing. Your mileage may vary.

One guy commented on the cast and how perfect he found it. And I have to agree, the whole cast was perfect. I can't think of any weak link there. Although, if I had to name someone I would say that I wasn't too impressed with Leonard Nimoy. I would have never thought that I'd say that, but somehow he just didn't feel like Spock. Maybe it was the new German voice they gave him (which was good, but it just wasn't Spock). I even found most of the dialog they gave him quite predictable and rather uninspired. I groaned at his 'volle Schubkraft' (I don't know what it was what he says in the original version; maybe 'full thrust' or something like that) in the scene where Kirk gets promoted to captain. I mean, what was that supposed to mean anyway?

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I saw the original version and while I didn't think Nimoy was weak, I was a bit shocked how old and fragile he looked. He doesn't sound that much like Spock anymore (I snickered when the computer in Spock's ship recognises young Spock's voice.). It was still great to see him. A few guys even cheered in the theatre. The scene where old Spock says, "full thrust" is followed by the scene on the bridge where Kirk says ist. I guess, it's supposed to show that new Kirk is still Kirk, old Spock being able to predict what he'll say because he knows him so well.
I agree about the cast. They were all great and really became the characters. I wish we would have seen a bit more of Sulu and more meaningful scenes with Scotty. But then again, this movie was mainly about Kirk and Spock.

One of may favorite characters from the original has always been Chekov. I just love the guy and Walter Koenig's performance. What I didn't see coming was that I would like the new Chekov just as much. Really, I just fell in love with this character all over again! I don't know about the original version, but the German dubbed version of his Russian accent was quite heavy and many people snickered in the theatre.

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The accent is heavy in the original version, too. People in the theatre kept laughing at it, even in the more dramatic scenes. We Germans really have a questionable sense of humour, I guess.

I have some minor problems with the whole plot, but nothing too jarring. I found the whole chain of events (Kirk getting dropped off at Delta Vega [seems like a rather unconventional penalization when they could have easily put him into the brig instead], coincidentally running into Ambassador Spock's cave, coincidentally meeting Scotty who coincidentally knows how to transport back to the Enterprise) rather far fetched. That was just all too convenient and therefore distracting. I also find it rather hard to swallow that Nero and his crew waited for 25 years doing nothing, really!

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I was surprised to find out that the Delta Vega scenario was a coincidence. Nero and his crew get little screen time and character build up, unfortunately.

Some more random thoughts:

Even though a lot of stuff looked different, this movie got the TOS feel down, especially in regards to Starfleet. It felt like the more military organisation it was in TOS, comprised of dedicated, earnest, great people. They even kept the basic design of the female uniforms and the underrepresentation of women on the bridge.
Pike was a great captain, a mentor figure and yet, badass. Then again, in this universe, a lot of people were badass.

The movie was a bit too fast-paced at times. At least, the action sequences weren't as bad as in Quantum of Solace. One had a general idea about what was going on, but I would have preferred it a bit slower, still. I miss the old days where you could easily follow an action sequence and it still looked good (I'm thinking "The Avengers").
But more importantly, I felt the movie sometimes hushed over the emotions generated by the events in the film. I mean, this has a tremendous death toll, nearly all Vulcans and the current Academy class plus many Starfleet officers. I loved the sequence where Spock is walking down the corridor while Kirk is taking over command.

Generally, the cinematography was excellent, a lot of beautiful shots and not too pseudo-artsy. However, the lens flares were slightly annoying in their mass. I don't mind one here and there, but I think it was overdone.

I could have done without a few crude jokes. The dialogues were well written and often funny (and we haven't had that in a Trek film for a while), so they could have done away with some of the slapstick scenes, especially the one where Kirk accidentally touched Uhura's breasts and where he hits his head in the shuttle (probably a hommage to Scotty hitting his head in STV).

They should have used more familiar aliens instead of making up all new ones. I liked the more alien looking ones, but it would have been nice if the nurse with the creepy eyes in the Kelvin scene would have been a humanoid alien from old Trek (a Trill maybe).

Overall, the movie felt quite rich in its details. There were a lot of hints at interesting opportunities. I feel they did an awesome job at introducing the main characters and the general setting, and now we have this blank canvas, ready for the taking. It's exciting! I really hope they do a sequel.

For me, the film hangs between 'above average' and 'excellent'. I'll see it again tonight and will reserve grading until then.

I just came back from the thing and you know something - I wish I hadn't wandered in here or to any kind of talkback. Listening to the opinions of some of the detractors just reminds me that when you become so focused on all the nuts and bolts of a thing, you completely miss the point. To be entertained.

For the running time of the film, I was entertained and I felt entertained watching a great Star Trek film. Yes, it was different, I think we can all agree this isn't Roddenberry's vision but that vision isn't irrevocably gone. We have it in books, movies, thousands of hours of television and its there at our finger tips when we want it.

What I found was, quicker than I expected I warmed to the idea of these actors taking on the iconic characters I loved so much. I'll always love Shatner & Co but this does not mean that these new actors were not convincing playing younger versions with a slightly different take. Furthermore, I'm glad they didn't try to exactly mimic those performances. After thousands of hours of television and the movies, I want these character to suprise me so when Uhura plants one on Spock (woah!) I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't take away from the character of Spock but it added an interesting aspect to the character we've never really had a chance to see. We've seen his battles with emotion and control... we've seen Leonard Nimoy do it spectacularly, I like Quinto to have a different set of parameters to play with so we can get somethign we haven't seen before.

Pine as Kirk surprised me. I absolutely did not like this casting at all. Of all of the character that were recast, this one was the one I had a problem with but when he got the captaincy at the end of the film, I was delighted. Pine won me over as he's won many others over. I agree that Pegg needed to be less comic relief, Cho was excellent. Whoever described Saldana's Uhura as slutty for rejecting the advances of guys that hit on her because she has someone she cares for needs a better understanding fo the word and finally Yelchin was better than I hoped. The cast made this film believable.

What made me think this was a great film however, was even if Nimoy didn't appear, it would have been still great. There was a good storyline with a real sense of tension. When Vulcan went, you knew all bets were off, we couldn't be sure if Starfleet and San Francisco wouldn't be decimated. And Amanda's death wasn't played for shock value, it had emotional gravitas, particularly when Sarek admits why he married her to Spock later.

This film was a ride and I enjoyed it. I'm not going to drive myself nuts about all the stuff that it didn't reflect. What's the point. Those things still exist as this film exists. I'm going to enjoy both in their own right.

Right. 12 hours after seeing it I have a few thoughts. I don't feel overwhelmed to write a review so this is all I got. In no particular order:

a) DEFINITELY need to see it again, preferably in the evening with a large audience and not at the first 10am showing. It was very impacting on a visual level and would love to take it in again.

b) If you've followed all the released clips that have popped up on the internet, you might have the same jarring experience as me. It was terrible! "There's the clip I've seen... new stuff! Tick tick tick... there's the bit I've seen... new stuff!" I was anticipating the bits I'd seen and it made the whole ride a bit choppy.

c) We had the exposition regarding the alternate reality, yet the plot contrives to push things together when - in an alternate reality - you would assume the end result wouldn't come to pass. Of course any alternate reality is possible, but in this instance it felt forced. Be it CADET McCoy's sudden promotion to CMO of the flagship, to Scotty's fortuitous arrival on the Enterprise and to CADET Kirk in the span of days rising in rank to Captain of the Federation Flagship. Was it his reward for the strategy he devised to save planet Earth? Was saving Earth such a big once-offer that they thought "what the hell, let's see how he goes?" In any event, he set a record.

On the subject of forced, I wonder if the relationship between Kirk and Spock was melded solely because Nimoy's Spock *told* them it was meant to be. We certainly witnessed the hostility develop between them, but the way Spock basically gets on with it and is *informed* of how his relationship with Kirk should be, followed by him hopping on as First Officer, didn't sit well with me. If their relationship had developed organically within the new timeline to emerge out of their dislike into the legendary bond they would eventually hold, I would have been suitably impressed.

d) I was underwhelmed by Nero. He was an instrument to bring the crew together for future adventures without the hindrance of canon, in the end. But he could have used a little more development. Further, his last lines along the lines of "I'd rather watch Romulus burn a hundred times than take help from you" detract from his main motivation of saving the world he loves. Had he just completely just lost the plot? If restoring his empire minus the Feds was his goal - stuff Spock! Just annihilate them then and there as opposed to waiting 25 years just to show off. Very odd.

As for "I should have killed you when I had the chance." ? Well yes, you probably should've as opposed to plucking out one of the oldest villain cliches of letting the hero go only to regret it later.

e) Cool moments: Opening, man. What a friggin' opening! A bit like First Contact, in a way (saving the all out space brawl for first). I had goosebumps and the shakes! They certainly didn't muck around.

I'm glad I know what I'm in for second time round. Having followed the development of this film from day one I was so conscious throughout the film I was *actually* watching it.

I hope in the next viewing I can sit back and absorb it along with everyone else, minus the incredible backlog of information in the back of my brain I have about it.

It was very pretty and I think it will do what it is meant to do, bring in people who aren't trek fans. I went with non-Trek people and they said it was okay. The main thing they didn't really get was the red matter, I think their comments were along the lines of were they just meant to "buy it".

I was really disappointed in Nero, not in Bana's performance but in the amount of time they spent on him. It was a waste of Bana really, they could have had a no-name do the same thing. Nero wasn't particularly interesting...though we don't really see him die and given he was in a black hole/time hole I hope that they would bring him back and flesh him out.

The action was good. The few silence in space moments were well done. I understand why they didn't show the Fed fleet getting destroyed but it would have been nice to see the Naranda actually appear to be a super-powerful ship and smash the Fed fleet or seeing the Klingons getting smacked. It is from over a century in the future but it couldn't even destroy the Kelvin or wipe out its escaping shuttles without having it rammed down its throat.

The acting was fine and the only negative comments from the group I went with was that Pine was a jerk and that George Kirk was annoying.

I gave it an above average and in my personal movie ranking this movie would rank fifth in the list.